An integrated systems model for energy services in rural developing communities

This paper develops a systems-based integrated model for investigating the impacts of various energy technologies as applied to meet specific energy needs in a rural developing village. The model enables the designer to examine of a variety of energy technology components subject to local and global constraints and reports the outcomes in terms of multiple objectives including energy consumption, climate effects, health impacts, cost analyses, and social considerations. It enables accounting for important application factors such as usability, multi-functionality, stacking and incomplete displacement of traditional methods, opportunity costs, effective discount rates, and impact to quality of life. Use of the model to analyze the baseline case of a well-characterized village in Mali revealed the conflicts between social, economic, and environmental objectives that often exist between stakeholders, highlighting the importance of attention to consumer preference. Analysis based on disaggregated energy needs illustrated that often the relative impacts between energy strategies are not immediately evident, suggesting that holistic systems-level analyses are critical before selecting a specific strategy to supply improved energy services to households in a community.